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Sol LeWitt
Splotch #15
2005
"Sol LeWitt on the Roof"
Metropolitan Museum

"Sol LeWitt on the Roof: Splotches, Whirls and Twirls," installation view

Sol LeWitt
Splotch #3
2000
"Sol LeWitt on the Roof"
Metropolitan Museum

The New York 12
by Phyllis Tuchman

Despite its makeshift and provisional beginnings, Minimalism has survived, endured and prospered. These days, Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, Carl Andre, Robert Ryman, Sol LeWitt, Brice Marden and Richard Serra hold big reputations. They all have been the subjects of retrospectives at major museums as well as assorted scholarly dissertations. To see their artwork, once thought to be ungainly, their fans have chalked up thousands of frequent flyer miles. Who doesn't know someone who knows someone who has flown to El Paso and then driven three hours to get to Judd's sprawling art campus in Marfa, Texas? And Dia: Beacon has become another destination site for indefatigable art pilgrims.

Yet, as Dorothy discovered, there is no place like home. With "Sol LeWitt on the Roof: Splotches, Whirls and Twirls" currently on view in the roof garden of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and a pair of sculptures -- Circle with Towers and Curved Wall with Towers -- installed in Madison Square Park by the Flatiron Building in Manhattan, it's a good time to review the fact that scattered across Manhattan are a dozen sites with wall drawings by this mild-mannered, thoughtful 77 year old. East Side, West Side, all around the town, there's probably a LeWitt on view in your neighborhood.

About his wall drawings, LeWitt once stated, "I wanted to do a work of art that was as two-dimensional as possible." And, in the same declarative sentences published in Arts Magazine in April 1970, he noted, "Different kinds of walls make for different kinds of drawings." That is part of the pleasure of visiting the "New York 12" in a short period of time. They're tall. They're wide. They meander. They're interrupted by doors, a coat check, elevators and air vents. They are geometric shapes, clusters of lines, a rainbow of colors. Your grade school art teacher probably would have found them too elemental; and your arithmetic teacher might have shrugged her shoulders.

Still, it is clear LeWitt has achieved what he sought almost 30 years ago when he wrote, "It is the desire of artists that their ideas be understood by as many people as possible." Today, these ideas convey joy and ebullience.

PHYLLIS TUCHMAN publishes regularly in the Smithsonian, Town & Country and other journals.


		Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing #926 1999 Jewish Museum		Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing #808 1996 Whitney Museum		Sol LeWitt Black and White Styrofoam on Red, Yellow and Blue Walls 1996 The Lighthouse


		Sol LeWitt Black and White Styrofoam on Red, Yellow and Blue Walls 1996 The Lighthouse		Sol LeWitt Black and White Styrofoam on Red, Yellow and Blue Walls (detail) 1996 The Lighthouse		Sol Lewitt's Wall Drawing #999 (2001), with sculptures by Damien Hirst and Isamu Noguchi, at Lever House


		Sol Lewitt Wall Drawing #999 2001 Lever House		Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing #1144 (detail) 2004 Museum of Modern Art		Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing #1144 2004 Museum of Modern Art


		Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing #402 1983 Equitable Center		Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing #403 1983 Equitable Center		Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing #896 1999 Christie's New York


		Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing #896 1999 Christie's New York		Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing #896 1999 Christie's New York		Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing #896 1999 685 Third Avenue


		Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing #961 2001 140 Franklin Street		Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing #961 2001 140 Franklin Street		Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing #961 2001 140 Franklin Street


		Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing #924 2000 Embassy Suites Hotel, Battery Park City		Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing #924 2000 Embassy Suites Hotel, Battery Park City		Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing #1073 2003 New School University


		Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing #1109 2003 New York Presbyterian Hospital Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of New York		Sol LeWitt's decoration for a computer monitor at the New York Presbyterian Hospital Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of New York		Sol LeWitt Wall Drawing #1109 2003 New York Presbyterian Hospital Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of New York

All Photographs by Phyllis Tuchman.

English (US)

A Walking Guide to the "New York 12" Plus One at the Metropolitan Museum

1. Jewish Museum, 1109 Fifth Avenue at 92^nd Street
2. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fifth Avenue at 82^nd Street
3. Whitney Museum of American Art, 945 Madison Avenue at 75^th Street
4. The Lighthouse, 111 East 59^th Street, between Park and Lexington Avenues
5. Lever House, 390 Park Avenue at 54th Street
6. Museum of Modern Art, 47 West 53^rd Street, between 5^th and 6^th Avenues
7. Equitable Center Courtyard, West 51^st and 52nd Streets, between 6^th and 7^th Avenues
8. Christie's New York, 20 Rockefeller Plaza at West 49^th Street, between 5^th and 6^th Avenues
9. 685 Third Avenue (enter on 45^th Street)
10. 140 Franklin Street, between Hudson and West Broadway
11. Embassy Suites Hotel, 102 North End Avenue, Battery Park
12. New School University, 55 West 13^th, between 5^th and 6^th Avenues
13. New York Presbyterian Hospital Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of New York, 165^th Street and Broadway

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